Re: [Marxism] Meet the leftwing columnists writing for a neo-Nazi website | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/4/18 3:48 PM, A.R. G wrote:

I don't think he takes Unz seriously. I know I don't.


I don't think that Norman takes Norman seriously.
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Re: [Marxism] Meet the leftwing columnists writing for a neo-Nazi website | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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I don't think he takes Unz seriously. I know I don't.

Amith R. Gupta
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Re: [Marxism] Meet the leftwing columnists writing for a neo-Nazi website | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/4/18 3:31 PM, A.R. G wrote:
 From what is written in the article it doesn't sound like he 
intentionally asked Ron Unz to publish his writings (but you can correct 
me).


It seems that Finkelstein and Unz are pals, as he mentioned in his 
email. I'd rather be pals with a rabid skunk.

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[Marxism] Meet the leftwing columnists writing for a neo-Nazi website | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Just about a year ago I discussed The Unz Review in the context of a 
controversy over Valerie Plame tweeting a link to an article that 
appeared there written by columnist Philip Giraldi titled “America’s 
Jews Are Driving America’s Wars”. Oh, did I mention that other people 
identified as columnists include: Patrick Cockburn, Peter Lee, Tom 
Engelhardt, Norman Finkelstein, and Michael Hudson?


The website is named after its founder Ron Unz, two of whose most recent 
posts has prompted me to revisit this website that encapsulates the 
sordid connections between the alt-right and the radical movement. Like 
David Duke and other aspiring fascists, Unz aggregates articles that 
might have appeared originally on leftist websites. Such articles offer 
solidarity for the Palestinians, Assad’s war on terrorism, the Eastern 
Ukraine separatists as well as opposition to trade deals like The 
Trans-Pacific Partnership, warmongers like John McCain, Mueller’s 
investigation and NATO.


For every one of these leftist articles (leaving aside the merits of 
Assad and the Donetsk militias) you will find just as many promoting 
bans on immigration of the sort found in VDARE (Ron Unz has donated 10s 
of thousands of dollars to VDARE), “scholarly” articles making the case 
that people of color are genetically inferior to Caucasians, arguments 
that the ANC is behind “white genocide” in South Africa aimed at farmers 
exactly like those made by Tucker Carlson and repeated by Trump, and 
anti-Semitic tripe of the sort Giraldi wrote.


But none of this prepared me for Ron Unz’s recent turn that effectively 
puts The Unz Review in the same category as the Daily Stormer and 
DavidDuke.com.


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2018/09/04/meet-the-leftwing-columnists-writing-for-a-neo-nazi-website/

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Re: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/4/18 11:59 AM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote:

The key word of course is "maintains." That is, no major difference from the 
record under previous governments.


Whatever. I just wonder if the Scientific American article can cite one 
of Chamorro's fellow gangsters as an authority on Green values, what 
else in the article needs to be fact-checked? I am too busy with another 
task to do this.

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Re: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

[Richard Fidler via Marxism]

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The key word of course is "maintains." That is, no major difference from the 
record under previous governments.

As to upholding a government because you can see no progressive alternative, 
isn't that the same argument used by "anti-imperialists" in Syria: that if 
Assad is overthrown, it will just mean placing ISIS, or Russia, or USA, or 
Turkey -- who else?  -- in charge. Better to support the monkey than the 
organ-grinder. In Nicaragua, the reality is that Ortega has removed from 
contention one opposition group after another, and barred the road to the 
emergence of a progressive alternative. Such an alternative is more likely to 
emerge from a powerful grassroots opposition movement that has managed through 
its own efforts to overthrow an autocratic regime.

Richard

-Original Message-
From: Louis Proyect [mailto:l...@panix.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2018 11:48 AM
To: Richard Fidler; 'Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition'
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

On 9/4/18 11:20 AM, Richard Fidler wrote:
> Earlier today, Lou posted a reply to an article in the Scientific American by 
> a
> critic of Nicaragua's environmental abuses. It is worth reading the article 
> that
> is the target of the author, Paul Oquist: Nicaragua's Acions Cast a Shadow 
> over
> Its Leadership of Major Climate Group,

It is also noteworthy that the Scientific American article states:

Nicaragua maintains a “policy of permanent destruction of natural 
resources,” according to an e-mailed statement from environmental 
scientist Jaime Incer Barquero, who directed the country’s Ministry of 
Environment and Natural Resources during the presidency of Violeta 
Chamorro in the 1990s.

---

Maybe most people reading the article have no clue what was happening 
under Violeta Chamorro but citing the head of the Ministry of 
Environment and Natural Resources is rather disingenuous. Everybody is 
ready to see Daniel Ortega overthrown but until the student movement 
puts forward a program that makes clear its opposition to him being 
replaced by the gang that ran Nicaragua before Ortega's reelection, 
count me out of the Dan La Botz brigades.


 From Environmental Justice: International Discourses in Political 
Economy, edited by Paul Thompson, 2002:

Although having adopted the rhetoric of environmentalism, successive 
former Presidents Violeta Chamorro and Arnoldo Aleman showed a 
willingness to sacrifice environmental quality, worker health and 
safety, and decent wages and social services in favor of "structural 
adjustment" and neo-liberal economic policy. Private investment in 
resource extraction is being encouraged. In 1996, the Ministry of 
Environmental and Natural Resources (MARENA) and President Aleman 
granted Solcarsa, a subsidiary of the giant Korean-based multinational 
corporation Kumkyung, a 30-year timber concession covering 62,000 
hectares in the Autonomous North Atlantic Coast Region (RAAN)—the 
largest and longest ever granted in Nicaragua's history. The logging 
inflicted enormous damage on indigenous communities and the second 
largest rainforest in the Americas, and was a clear violation of 
Nicaragua's laws against mahogany exports and the right of the region's 
indigenous peoples to determine the use of local resources under the 
1987 Autonomy Law (the logging concession was later declared 
unconstitutional in February of 1997 by the Supreme Count of Nicaragua 
on the grounds that it violated Article 181 of the Constitution). 
Although the concession was revoked in late February 1998 because of 
local and international protests, another concession was granted to a 
"new company" PRADA two months later.

Government-owned industry and natural resources have been privatized, 
and new laws allow foreign interests 100 percent owner-ship of 
Nicaraguan companies. As a result, Canadian companies practicing 
open-pit gold and copper mining (which uses cyanide leaching to remove 
the precious metals from ore), are now creating severe environmental and 
human health problems throughout the country. Although some 
environmental programs will be maintained, it appears likely that the 
more comprehensive environmental programs initiated under the Sandinista 
government (and which do not receive external funding) will continue to 
be dismantled until there is a change in power. And in the wake of the 
devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch, there will undoubtedly be 
increased exploitation of natural resources to generate foreign exchange 
and rebuild the collapsed economy. This is very likely to further deepen 
the vicious downward spiral of poverty and environmental 

Re: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/4/18 11:20 AM, Richard Fidler wrote:

Earlier today, Lou posted a reply to an article in the Scientific American by a
critic of Nicaragua's environmental abuses. It is worth reading the article that
is the target of the author, Paul Oquist: Nicaragua's Acions Cast a Shadow over
Its Leadership of Major Climate Group,


It is also noteworthy that the Scientific American article states:

Nicaragua maintains a “policy of permanent destruction of natural 
resources,” according to an e-mailed statement from environmental 
scientist Jaime Incer Barquero, who directed the country’s Ministry of 
Environment and Natural Resources during the presidency of Violeta 
Chamorro in the 1990s.


---

Maybe most people reading the article have no clue what was happening 
under Violeta Chamorro but citing the head of the Ministry of 
Environment and Natural Resources is rather disingenuous. Everybody is 
ready to see Daniel Ortega overthrown but until the student movement 
puts forward a program that makes clear its opposition to him being 
replaced by the gang that ran Nicaragua before Ortega's reelection, 
count me out of the Dan La Botz brigades.



From Environmental Justice: International Discourses in Political 
Economy, edited by Paul Thompson, 2002:


Although having adopted the rhetoric of environmentalism, successive 
former Presidents Violeta Chamorro and Arnoldo Aleman showed a 
willingness to sacrifice environmental quality, worker health and 
safety, and decent wages and social services in favor of "structural 
adjustment" and neo-liberal economic policy. Private investment in 
resource extraction is being encouraged. In 1996, the Ministry of 
Environmental and Natural Resources (MARENA) and President Aleman 
granted Solcarsa, a subsidiary of the giant Korean-based multinational 
corporation Kumkyung, a 30-year timber concession covering 62,000 
hectares in the Autonomous North Atlantic Coast Region (RAAN)—the 
largest and longest ever granted in Nicaragua's history. The logging 
inflicted enormous damage on indigenous communities and the second 
largest rainforest in the Americas, and was a clear violation of 
Nicaragua's laws against mahogany exports and the right of the region's 
indigenous peoples to determine the use of local resources under the 
1987 Autonomy Law (the logging concession was later declared 
unconstitutional in February of 1997 by the Supreme Count of Nicaragua 
on the grounds that it violated Article 181 of the Constitution). 
Although the concession was revoked in late February 1998 because of 
local and international protests, another concession was granted to a 
"new company" PRADA two months later.


Government-owned industry and natural resources have been privatized, 
and new laws allow foreign interests 100 percent owner-ship of 
Nicaraguan companies. As a result, Canadian companies practicing 
open-pit gold and copper mining (which uses cyanide leaching to remove 
the precious metals from ore), are now creating severe environmental and 
human health problems throughout the country. Although some 
environmental programs will be maintained, it appears likely that the 
more comprehensive environmental programs initiated under the Sandinista 
government (and which do not receive external funding) will continue to 
be dismantled until there is a change in power. And in the wake of the 
devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch, there will undoubtedly be 
increased exploitation of natural resources to generate foreign exchange 
and rebuild the collapsed economy. This is very likely to further deepen 
the vicious downward spiral of poverty and environmental deterioration 
which contributed to the disaster in the first place.


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Re: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

[Richard Fidler via Marxism]

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What has shocked so many -- especially those of us who were active in the
international Sandinista solidarity movement in the 1980s -- is the wave of
repression unleashed by the Ortega-Murillo regime since April 19. Never before
in Latin America has a government claiming to be on "the left" turned its police
(and, in Nicaragua, paramilitaries and sharpshooters) on peaceful, unarmed
demonstrators in the streets --  shooting hundreds, wounding thousands, even
denying them hospital care. 

Louis, in his rambling early attempt to figure out what was happening, cited
below, simply avoids referring to the initial repression, which in subsequent
weeks escalated until the Nicaraguan government itself now admits to some 230
deaths (overwhelmingly non-police), while independent human rights organizations
have documented more than 400. This balance sheet itself -- and the whitewashing
of it by the "oficialista" left (Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, etc.) on the usual
pretext that the US must be behind it -- calls for serious reflection about the
state of the left today not only in Nicaragua but throughout the region. As Lou
demonstrates in his own reactions, we are facing here some of the same
conflicting reactions that we saw in the initial responses internationally to
the Assad regime's violent suppression of the popular protests in Syria.

Earlier today, Lou posted a reply to an article in the Scientific American by a
critic of Nicaragua's environmental abuses. It is worth reading the article that
is the target of the author, Paul Oquist: Nicaragua's Acions Cast a Shadow over
Its Leadership of Major Climate Group,
http://tinyurl.com/ybf9akgq.

As a quick google search reveals, Oquist apparently hires himself out as a
scientific "advisor" to poor countries in the Central American-Caribbean region.
In Nicaragua, Ortega has even given him cabinet rank. At the Paris climate
summit in 2016, where he represented Nicaragua in place of Ortega who couldn't
be bothered attending, Oquist cast the lone vote against the final accord saying
it did not go far enough. However, when Trump later pulled out of the agreement
Ortega decided to sign on to it, and with Syria's recent adhesion only the
United States lies outside of it.

But Oquist is not just an expert on climate change and environment. He is a
vocal defender of the politics of Ortega-Murillo. For example, take a look at
his defence of the regime in a two-part interview on Democracy Now: 
Extended Conversation with Nicaraguan Government Minister Paul Oquist on
Escalating Crisis
http://tinyurl.com/yc7qsmjp

Richard

-Original Message-
From: Marxism [mailto:marxism-boun...@lists.csbs.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Louis
Proyect via Marxism
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2018 10:07 AM
To: rfid...@ncf.ca
Subject: [Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/04/nicaraguan-contradictions/
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[Marxism] Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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In my blog post about a trip to Washington DC 
(https://louisproyect.org/2018/08/26/washington-dc-tourist-notes/), I 
mentioned my visit to the Museum of the American Indian, where an 
exhibit on the Yurok Indians pointed out how the damming of the Klamath 
River has impinged on tribal culture, especially salmon fishing. This 
article details how this has also increased opioid addiction as well.



NY Times, Sept. 4, 2018
Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History?
By Jose A. Del Real

WEITCHPEC, Calif. — For thousands of years, the Klamath River has been a 
source of nourishment for the Northern California tribes that live on 
its banks. Its fish fed dozens of Indian villages along its winding 
path, and its waters cleansed their spirits, as promised in their 
creation stories.


But now a crisis of opioid addiction is gripping this remote region. At 
the same time, the Klamath’s once-abundant salmon runs have declined to 
historic lows, the culmination of 100 years of development and dam 
building along the river.


Today, many members of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes living in this 
densely forested area south of the California-Oregon border see a 
connection between the river’s struggle and their own.


“It’s no coincidence to me that this opioid problem and the river crisis 
are happening at the same time; when that resource is gone, it leads to 
a sense of despair,” said Amy Cordalis, the Yurok tribe’s general counsel.


Conflict along the Klamath has been a part of life going back to the 
Gold Rush, say those living on the reservation. Battles over land rights 
and federal funding, high rates of violence, an epidemic of meth in the 
2000s and drought have all contributed to the tribes’ difficulties. Some 
strife has been caused from outsiders; some has come from within.


Now heroin is fraying family bonds like never before, they say, a 
devastating response to crisis.


“The river is the lifeblood of our community,” Ms. Cordalis added, 
describing the Klamath’s central role in traditional prayers, dances and 
rituals. “With the Yurok people, who we are and how we live always comes 
back to the river.”


Salmon runs reached historic lows last year, destabilizing an already 
fragile subsistence economy for thousands living along the river. 
Without salmon in this region, where unemployment can reach 80 percent 
in some areas, families risk hunger and destitution.


At the same time, a surge of heroin has intensified problems with opioid 
addiction that first began with painkillers like OxyContin in the early 
2000s and began to worsen in 2014, according to tribal members. Among 
the Yurok, the Karuk and the Hoopa Indians, it is difficult to find 
anyone who has not been directly touched by heroin.


EDITORS’ PICKS

Opinion
A Free Press Needs You

Why Are Puffins Vanishing? The Hunt for Clues Goes Deep (Into Their Burrows)

Opinion
The Gift of Menopause
Image
From left: Yurok Chief Justice Abby Abinanti; Codie Donahue, who has 
Yurok and Karuk lineage; and Yurok tribal attorney Amy 
Cordalis.CreditAlexandra Hootnick for The New York Times

ADVERTISEMENT

Nationally, Native Americans are the hardest-hit demographic in an 
overdose death epidemic that has affected every corner of the country. 
Between 1999 and 2015, there was a 519 percent increase in the number of 
overdose deaths among rural Native Americans, according to a 2017 study 
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to an 
increase of 325 percent in rural areas overall. Abuse of painkillers and 
heroin have played significantly into those trends.


Keeping Traditions Alive

In Yurok country, tribal leaders have pursued an aggressive agenda of 
cultural revival since the early 1990s in an effort to keep traditions 
alive. The process has not always been smooth. A decade ago, there was 
friction when tribal leaders were deciding how to manage $92 million in 
back payments from the federal government for logging on Yurok land.


Ultimately, 90 percent of the money was disbursed to members in a lump 
sum. Some questioned the wisdom of that decision by the tribal 
leadership, suggesting the money would be quickly spent, rather than saved.


Since then, the river’s intensifying troubles have caused spiritual 
pain, in addition to exacerbating economic anguish.


“In part, there’s a tremendous feeling of guilt, I think. The economics 
of it matter, yes, but it’s so much more than that for us,” said Yurok 
Chief Justice Abby Abinanti. “Our worldview is that we’re here in 
partnership with these other beings, the river and the fish. We have 
obligations to them.”


“Now it feels like the 

[Marxism] Nicaraguan Contradictions

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/04/nicaraguan-contradictions/
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[Marxism] Background on Nicaragua events

[Richard Fidler via Marxism]

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There are now many informative and critical reports in Latin America on the
Nicaraguan repression since April, and even a fair amount in English. 

Here is a useful report on the Ortega-Murillo regime by Trevor Evans, for years
an economic advisor to the Nicaraguan government:
The Family-Party-State Nexus in Nicaragua,
https://socialistproject.ca/2018/05/family-party-state-nexus-in-nicaragua/

This recent report by Dan La Botz has some update material, and cites US
government statements that indicate the evolution of Washington's reaction to
the Ortega repression, and why it does not call overtly for the overthrow of the
regime.
Nicaragua's Popular Rebellion Stopped -- For Now


La Botz's book What Went Wrong? The Nicaraguan Revolution: A Marxist Analysis,
published in 2016 (pb in 2018), but before the recent repression, contains a
very informative account in its final chapters of the devolution of the
Sandinista party since its 1990 electoral defeat, although I don't agree with
some of La Botz's theory on the origins of the Sandinista errors during the
revolutionary government of the 1980s.

Here is an update (with links to earlier accounts) on the state of the protest
movement and government attempts to suppress it:
The Crimes of the Regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo
http://tinyurl.com/ycl2rskt

Richard


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Re: [Marxism] Rutgers revisits free speech decision after public backlash

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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Even if we were to accept the notion that whites, as a race group, can be
threatened or institutionally intimidated by these kinds of unhinged speech
acts, it is bizarre that a university would intervene over something like
this. The reality is that there are entire departments and programs at most
universities designed to non-sarcastically indoctrinate students into the
art of dehumanizing people of minority races. It is good to see that they
are reviewing this decision.

Amith R. Gupta
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[Marxism] Double Blow to Brazil Museum: Neglect, Then Flames

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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The "B" in BRICS stood for Brazil, one of the five countries that were 
supposedly going to constitute a new economic hegemonic power pushing 
aside the decadent old order based in NYC and London. This horrible fire 
demonstrates that these countries are far more vulnerable to capitalist 
crisis than might have appeared when a Goldman Sachs partner coined the 
term BRIC (South Africa, another basket case, was added later).


NY Times, Sept. 4, 2018
Double Blow to Brazil Museum: Neglect, Then Flames
By Manuela Andreoni, Ernesto Londoño and Lis Moriconi

RIO DE JANEIRO — The stately national museum, once home to Brazil’s 
royal family, was still smoldering at sunrise on Monday when scores of 
researchers, museum workers and anthropologists began gathering outside, 
dressed in black.


Some sobbed as they began taking stock of the irreplaceable losses: 
Thousands, perhaps millions, of significant artifacts had been reduced 
to ashes Sunday night in a devastating fire. The hall that held a 
12,000-year-old skeleton known as Luzia, the oldest human remains 
discovered in the Americas, was destroyed.


Hundreds of residents joined them beneath an overcast sky that matched 
the national mood. They had come not only to mourn but also to protest 
Brazil’s near-abandonment of museums and other basic public services. 
Many saw the fire as a symbol for a city, and nation, in distress.


“It’s a moment of intense pain,” Maurilio Oliveira, who has worked as a 
paleoartist at the National Museum of Brazil for 19 years, said as he 
stood in front of the ravaged building. “We can only hope to recover our 
history from the ashes. Now, we cry and get to work.”


Just a few years ago, Rio de Janeiro appeared to be on the cusp of a 
golden era. As it prepared for the 2016 Olympics, the city underwent a 
multibillion-dollar transformation. Real estate prices soared, the 
public transit system was revamped and cranes towered over much of the city.


It was supposed to be Brazil’s shining moment on the world stage. 
Instead, a vast corruption scandal that has tarred countless national 
figures, combined with a devastating recession, set in motion a period 
of political instability. Soon, those dreams seemed little more than a 
mirage.


In recent years, state and city governments in Brazil have failed to pay 
police officers and doctors on time. Public libraries and other cultural 
centers have shut down. The ranks of the unemployed and homeless have 
swelled.


Perhaps no other part of Brazil has felt the whiplash quite as intensely 
as Rio de Janeiro. Early this year, as deadly violence soared, its 
governor took the unprecedented step of asking the federal government to 
put the military in charge of public safety.


The museum itself was not spared, falling into disrepair as the country 
struggled. It got so bad, local news media reports said, that professors 
who worked at the museum resorted to collecting money to help pay for 
cleaning services. Beyond a few fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, 
the museum did not have a fire-suppression system, officials said.


Outside the ruins of the museum Monday morning, Emmanuele Medeiros, 19, 
a history student who had come to join the protests, lamented what has 
happened to her country.


“The city was reduced to ashes,” Ms. Medeiros said. “There are no 
doctors in the hospitals; teachers in schools don’t make a living wage. 
It’s very sad because it could have all been avoided if it wasn’t for 
all this corruption.”


It took more than six hours for 80 firefighters from 21 stations to 
extinguish the blaze. On Monday, they scoured through piles of ashes 
searching for salvageable pieces from a museum that had housed a trove 
of indigenous artifacts, as well as Latin America’s pre-eminent 
collection of Egyptian mummies and Roman frescoes from the ancient city 
of Pompeii.


Cristiana Serejo, the deputy director of the museum, told reporters on 
Monday afternoon that about 10 percent of the museum’s collection had 
been spared. Among the surviving materials were a large meteorite and a 
portion of the zoology exhibit.


Mr. Oliveira, the paleoartist, said museum officials were all but 
resigned to the loss of the Luzia remains — perhaps the museum’s most 
iconic piece.


“We are strongly hoping that she survived, but it’s very difficult,” he 
said. “The skull is very fragile. The only thing that could have saved 
it is if a piece of wood or something fell and protected it.”


The fire wiped out years’ worth of research by botanists, marine 
biologists, paleontologists and entomologists. Upon hearing that the 
compound was on fire, some employees, including Ms. 

[Marxism] How the U.S. economy turned six good jobs into bad ones - The Washington Post

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Unfortunately, it wouldn't make much sense for me to forward the article 
since it relies heavily on graphs. I hope that you aren't blocked by the 
newspaper's paywall.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/04/how-us-economy-turned-six-good-jobs-into-bad-ones/
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[Marxism] Rutgers revisits free speech decision after public backlash

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Rutgers University ruled that a professor's supposedly satirical 
comments on white gentrification violated university policy. In response 
to public backlash, the university is reviewing its initial decision.


http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/09/04/rutgers-revisits-free-speech-decision-after-public-backlash
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Fascism and the University

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THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW
Fascism and the University
Higher education has historically been a bulwark against 
authoritarianism. Or its pawn. What’ll it be this time?

By Jason Stanley SEPTEMBER 02, 2018  PREMIUM

In recent years, several countries across the world have been overtaken 
by a certain kind of far-right nationalism; the list includes Russia, 
Hungary, Poland, India, Turkey, and the United States. The task of 
generalizing about such phenomena is always vexing. But such 
generalization is necessary now, when patterns have emerged that suggest 
the resurgence of fascist politics globally. Increasingly, attacks on 
universities and conflicts over their policies are a symptom of this 
phenomenon.


I use the label "fascism" to describe any ultranationalism — ethnic, 
religious, or cultural — in which the nation is represented by an 
authoritarian leader who claims to speak for the people. As Donald J. 
Trump declared in his Republican National Convention speech in July 
2016, "I am your voice." In particular, my interest is in fascist 
politics as a mechanism to achieve power. Once those who employ such 
tactics come to power, the regimes they enact are in large part 
determined by particular historical conditions. What occurred in Germany 
was different from what occurred in Italy. Fascist politics does not 
necessarily lead to an explicitly fascist state, but it is dangerous 
nonetheless.


Honest politics needs intelligent debate. One of the clearest signs of 
fascist politics, then, is attacks on universities and expertise — the 
support systems of discussion and the sources of knowledge and facts. 
Intelligent debate is impossible without access to different 
perspectives, a respect for expertise when one’s own knowledge gives 
out, and a rich enough language to precisely describe reality. When 
education is undermined, only power and tribal identity remain.


This does not mean that there is no role for universities in fascist 
politics. In fascist ideology, only one viewpoint is legitimate. 
Colleges are meant to introduce students to the dominant culture and its 
mythic past. Education therefore either poses a grave threat to fascism 
or becomes a pillar of support for the mythical nation. It’s no wonder, 
then, that cultural clashes on campuses represent a true political 
battleground and receive national attention. The stakes are high.


For at least the past 50 years, universities have been the epicenter of 
protest against injustice and authoritarian overreach. Consider, for 
example, their unique role in the antiwar movement of the 1960s. Where 
speech is a right, propagandists cannot attack dissent head-on; instead 
they must represent it as something violent and oppressive (a protest 
therefore becomes a "riot"). In 2015 the Black Lives Matter movement 
spread to university campuses. Given that Black Lives Matter gained 
strength after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., it is no 
surprise that the first campus it touched was the University of Missouri 
at Columbia. The Missouri student movement was named Concerned Student 
1950, after the year in which the University of Missouri was 
desegregated. Among its aims was to address the incidents of racial 
abuse faced by black students on a regular basis, as well as to change 
curricula that represented culture and civilization as the product 
solely of white men. The media largely ignored those motivations, and, 
representing protesting black students as an angry mob, used the 
situation as an opportunity to foment rage against the supposed liberal 
excesses of the university.


Fascist politics seeks to undermine the credibility of institutions that 
harbor independent voices of dissent. One typical method is to level 
accusations of hypocrisy. Right now, a contemporary right-wing campaign 
is charging universities with hypocrisy on the issue of free speech. 
Universities, it says, claim to hold free speech in the highest regard 
but suppress any voices that don’t lean left. Critics of campus 
social-justice movements have found an effective method of turning 
themselves into the victims of protest. They contend that protesters 
mean to deny them their own free speech.


These accusations also extend into the classroom. David Horowitz is a 
far-right activist who has been targeting universities since the 1980s. 
In 2006 he published a book, The Professors, naming the "101 most 
dangerous professors in America," a list of leftist and liberal 
professors, many of whom were supporters of Palestinian rights. In 2009 
he published another book, One Party Classroom, with a list of the "150 
most 

[Marxism] Nicaragua: 'Scientific American Should Try Sticking to Science' | Opinion | teleSUR English

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By Paul Oquist, chief economics adviser to Daniel Ortega.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Nicaragua-Scientific-American-Should-Try-Sticking-to-Science-20180901-0022.html
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[Marxism] ZCommunications » Labor Day 2018: The Myth of Rising Wages

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https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/labor-day-2018-the-myth-of-rising-wages/
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[Marxism] Trump Gingerly, Politely begs Russia not to Do Syria Idlib Campaign, Pretty Please

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https://www.juancole.com/2018/09/gingerly-politely-campaign.html
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Re: [Marxism] The Nicaraguan Crisis and the Manicheanism of the US Left

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Here is another joint statement in solidarity with the uprising:

Spanish:

https://www.thecommunists.net/home/espa%C3%B1ol/nicaragua-solidaridad-internacional-con-el-levantamiento-popular/

Portuguese:

https://www.thecommunists.net/home/portugu%C3%AAs/nicaragua-solidariedade-internacional-com-a-revolta-popular/

English: 
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/joint-statement-international-solidarity-with-the-popular-uprising-in-nicaragua/


--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
www.rkob.net
ak...@rkob.net
Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314



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